Unfortunately we didn't get a Diamond Rugs set at Brooklyn Bowl, as promised, but that's because "Steve couldn't make it from the lobos show." Los Lobos was playing the same night at City Winery, and Steve from Los Lobos (who was supposed to cab it over to Brooklyn Bowl) also plays in Diamond Rugs who played their debut live show on 12/29 in Atlanta (two Deer Tick members and one from Dead Confederate play in it too).

That aside, Deer Tick, like Lucero the night before, played a raucous and entertaining show complete with frontman John McCauley in a New Year's Baby costume. They went on not long before midnight, meaning the countdown, which they may have been slightly late for, happened early in their set (complete with Cee-Lo in Times Square on the tv screens). Deer Tick's setlist pulled from their entire catalog and the encore-less night ended with two special guests and a stage full of people (and fallen confetti). First Craig Finn of The Hold Steady (who was also at Lucero) joined Deer Tick on stage for a cover of "Bastards of Young" by the Replacements (not the first time Craig performed that song), and thenPatrick Stickles of Titus Andronicus came out to help them close the show with a drunken singalong of "Let's All Go To The Bar". By the end you couldn't really find Patrick though because half the audience seemed to be on stage... I think that's how it went. Details are fuzzy. Luckily we have these pictures to help jog my memory. More of them, and some videos, below...

As mentioned, Lucero are celebrating New Year's Eve in Boston, but they'll be at Brooklyn Bowl on 12/30 the night before. Limited tickets will be available at the door (and it's possible some are still available on their presale page). Both of those shows and a few others around the same time are with Lionize.

The night after they play the Brooklyn venue, Deer Tick will play Brooklyn Bowl on what is actually New Year's Eve (12/31). Tickets are still available and also available is a combo package that allows you entry to see the Deer Tick show and the Lucero show too.

Lucero recently finished up in the studio, where they were recording their next album, which will be the followup to 2009's 1372 Overton Park. Guitarist Brian Venable spoke to AMP about the new album:

It's been two years since 1372. We're continuing... not necessarily a Memphis soul... but we've got the horns on there again, we've got the pedal steel, you know. It's what we wanted to start with 1372, the obvious direction for us. We kind of joke about it being a "country soul" record, kind of like DELANEY AND BONNIE. There's a lot of that like, FACES, BOB SEGER... You hear about those traveling road shows in the '70s where it would be ERIC CLAPTON, DELANEY AND BONNIE, JOHN LEE HOOKER, and KING CURTIS, you know, just complete mash ups. We've got some rockers, we've got a lot of mid-tempo stuff, but I feel like it's a very mature record. We pretty much just wrote this record, there weren't any extra songs really. We took two or three months off in the spring and just wrote a record. We have a practice space with a recording studio upstairs. We would spend a week downstairs working up stuff and then the next week we would move everything up stairs and put it all down on tape. We'd find out what needed to be changed, we'd go downstairs, work stuff out again, and then bring it back upstairs. Going into the actual studio, the record was fairly realized, which was awesome.

They've said that the new record will be called Women & Work because "most of your life is based around women and work." The album is due in March via ATO.

They also recently announced a two-month long tour for 2012 in support of the album which includes dates with Built to Spill, J Roddy Walston & The Business (who opens for Deer Tick on New Year's Eve), William Elliot Whitmore, and others. That tour brings them to NYC on April 20 at Webster Hall with J Roddy Walston & The Business. Tickets for the whole tour are on presale now. Tickets for Webster Hall go on sale via Ticketmaster on January 13 with an AmEx presale starting on January 11.

All dates and a song that Rick and Todd from Lucero wrote and recorded with members of The Aggrolites and Larry & His Flaskat Warped Tour below...

Another NYC New Year's Eve option: Deer Tick, J. Roddy Walston and the Business, Dead Confederate, and Virgin Forest are taking over Brooklyn Bowl on December 31, 2011. $45 tickets are on sale now for what is sure to be a very drunken welcome to 2012. For $15 more you can also get a ticket to see Lucerowho plays one night earlier at the same venue.

Last night's show was also not the first time Titus Andronicus frontman Patrick Stickles joined Deer Tick, whose guitar player is ex-Titus member Ian O'Neil, on stage. This time it was for a cover of the Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait".

Jason Andersonof K Records fame opened the show, which I thought was weird until I found out the connection. John McCauley has played drums for Jason, and they were both Tiger Saw collaborators! J Roddy Walston and the Business played 2nd, and all bands joined Deer Tick on the stage at the end of the show. Beer was spraying everywhere.

Things will probably be slightly less rowdy when John McCauley goes on a solo tour in 2011. Dates are TBA, but tickets are already on sale for a January 19th show at City Winery (not sure if he'll be playing any drums at this one).

"A trip back in to the mainland to visit the flasks. Best idea of the summer. Lucero! Governors island!" - Travis

Though it barely ended up raining at all during the four hour concert itself, I think the prospect of rain scared people away from Saturday night's free Lucero show on Governors Island. It was the least attended edition of the Converse-presented "Gone to Governors" series so far, but that actually made it extra cool for those who did go since there was tons of space to stretch out and enjoy the non-heatwave weather, chillwave-palm trees, sandy beach and views of the Manhattan skyline .

Jonny Corndawg, accompanied by two band members, kicked the night off right with a fun set of country music and a side of good advice (such as staying healthy through exercise, meditation and eating garlic once in a while). People sang along to the ultra catchy "Shut Up". People paid attention when he dropped the instruments to preach a Capella style.

J Roddy Walston and the Business followed with a high-energy performance of piano-infused Southern rock that warmed people up for Lucero's two-hour headlining set that ended right at midnight.

It was at least the third time I saw Lucero this year and this show was as much of a party as all others (what I remember of it anyway). More pictures and a bunch of videos from the night, below...

Governors Island Ferry Information Update for the Saturday July 10th show (Lucero featuring J-Roddy Walston and The Business)

We encourage everyone to come early and enjoy the beach. The Beach is open at 10am. Governors Island ferries will run from the Battery Maritime Building until 5:30PM. If you are on the island early, please make sure to get yourself to the Beach venue by 5:30PM, as concert wristbands will be distributed early.

There will be no boats to the concert departing from the Battery Maritime Building after 5:30PM.

Dedicated concert ferries will depart after 5:30PM from Manhattan:
Pier 11, located at the corner of South Street and Wall Street in lower Manhattan.

Show time is 8:00PM.

Wristbands will be distributed at the Beach (prior to 5:30) and at the Pier 11 Manhattan ferry departure point (after 5:30) on a first-come, first-serve basis.

If you can't be at the show, you can always listen to it live on CoverseRadio.com.

Following that, J Roddy Walston and The Business have a gig coming up at Brooklyn Bowl on July 26th with the Static Jacks. Tickets are on sale for that.

Lucero, who have more summer shows, have another NYC gig coming up too, but not till the fall, when they'll be on tour with Social Distortion (who have a new disc coming out around the same time) and Frank Turner. All three acts play Roseland Ballroom on November 4th. Tickets, on Citi presale now, go on general sale Friday at 10am. They'll also be playing a few NY-area venues like House of Blues in Atlantic City. All dates for the tour are below.

Before then Social D tour with the Action Design and bluesman Dan Sartain. That tour hits regional stops like The Chance in Poughkeepsie on July 27th, Starland Ballroom on August 1st, and Mulcahy's on Long Island on August 3rd. Tickets for those shows are at ticketmaster.

Dan Sartain, whose Lives LP comes out July 20th One Little Indian, has a NYC show of his own at Mercury Lounge on July 29th (no ticket info is posted anywhere). His song "Atheist Funeral" off that is posted above, with the video below.

The Hold Steady have updated their tour schedule, which already included a NYC show at the Beacon Theatre on October 7th, with two more NYC gigs on Saturday, April 17th. That night they play an early show at Bowery Ballroom with J-Roddy Walston And The Business, and a late show at Music Hall of Williamsburg with The Oranges Band. Two shows. One night.

Early show tickets and late show tix go on "Internet Presale" today (2/12) at 4pm. The presale is for people that bought tickets to Beacon, but it seems reasonable to believe that it might just be a password that anyone can enter. General sale starts Wednesday (4/14) at 10am.

In addition to the previously mentioned tour dates in support of the forthcoming Beat The Devil's Tattoo, BRMC have also confirmed an appearance at the Vagrant Records SXSW showcase with School of Seven Bells, J Roddy Walston & The Business and Murder By Death on March 19th at La Zona Rosa.